The ways cities around the globe can make themselves smarter are as varied and multi-layered as the different sizes and shapes of the world's urban areas.

Cities face different problems. For one it might be dealing with transport, or crime, while for another sustainability, or streamlining public service provision and access to technology for all, might be important. There is no one-size-fits-all model.

What is good for one part of the UK might not be good for another; what works in Europe may not translate to the Americas. Making an existing urban area – London or New York, say – smarter is a very different prospect from starting afresh on a greenfield site.

"Everyone seems to have a different model of what constitutes a smarter city, depending on whether you are talking about sustainability or intelligent use of technology," says Dave Fitch, project manager at Edinburgh Napier University for the EU Smart Cities project, which is aimed at improving the development and delivery of joined-up e-services in a series of northern European municipalities including Norfolk and Edinburgh. "We have colleagues in Belgium who have listed 10 different models – for tourism, business, citizens etc," says Fitch.

Improving life for all

The places that do best in terms of smart-city innovation show a desire – shared by leaders, town planners, utility companies, the providers of public services and reinforced by demand and involvement from citizens – to make things work better with the aim of creating an improved life for all.

"It's about people at the leading edge having a vision of what they are going to do,'' adds Fitch.

"There needs to be a commitment to use technology to improve services – there needs to be a political vision."

The level of ambition and nature of the issues being tackled varies enormously. In Glasgow, for instance, the principal emphasis is on energy providers and local government coming together to provide a more environmentally sustainable city. The aim is to dramatically reduce energy usage while not sacrificing economic growth or social welfare.

In Greater Manchester – about four times bigger than Glasgow – the focus is on better unification for an area of 2.6 million people and 10 different local authorities. The aim is to achieve "efficiency through collaboration" by streamlining structures that deal with health, economic regeneration, public services, planning, transportation and governance; taking advantage, wherever possible, of the latest technologies.

But in the West Midlands, which has a similar size and number of different authorities, there is less appetite for a "Greater Birmingham", leaving the main city to pursue its own agenda for a digital Birmingham, promoting "greater connectivity" with its citizens. This includes access to online databases on public consultation exercises and a TV channel giving details of local authority services and realtime bus services.

The Centre for Cities thinktank believes that larger city regions like Manchester are the ideal size to achieve smart policies. Such areas are felt to be in a better position than, say, London – which is too big, and has too many competing layers – or smaller towns, which lack human and financial resources and have different problems and priorities.

In the UK, Peterborough has ambitious plans to become the country's most environmentally conscious city through almost every aspect of local government, particularly in terms of managing its physical growth, while Southampton is one of many cities developing its own version of London's Oyster card, for use on all types of public transport.

Some way to go

Other areas have some way to go. Four selected British cities – Cardiff, Aberdeen, Leicester and Portsmouth – came only halfway up a table of 70 smaller European cities ranked for their "smartness" in transport, the environment, the economy, governance and quality of life. The list was topped by Luxembourg.

Elsewhere in Europe, Malta is trialling the first large-scale attempt at smart metering, in order to achieve much closer realtime monitoring of its water and electricity consumption. Meanwhile, plans are afoot to transform farmland outside Paredes in northern Portugal into Europe's first smart city, with networking embedded into 100,000 homes, buildings and infrastructure.

Sharing information

At Paredes, designated a project of national importance by the Portuguese government, sensors embedded into the 17.5 sq km site will mean "realtime information can be shared quickly to facilitate decision-making on everything from traffic management to crime prevention". The £10bn project is forecast to create 3,000 technology jobs.

But the £14bn Masdar City project in Abu Dhabi is perhaps the grandest smart city project currently underway, significant because the developers are using new technology to create the world's first zero-carbon, zero-waste city.

The 6 sq km city will incorporate sustainable technologies as part of its design and will house research facilities, businesses and institutions active in the fields of renewable energy and sustainability. Cars will also be banned and all transport in the city will be by public transit systems.

The city has been designed by British architect Norman Foster, who says it will "question conventional urban wisdom at a fundamental level". Perhaps it will become the model smart city for the future.

Northern star Glasgow

Glasgow is on course to become one of Europe's most sustainable cities over the next decade.

The city's huge potential for reducing carbon emissions was discovered by an "unprecedented" partnership between the commercial and public sectors, who joined forces to work on improving Glasgow's energy efficiency.

A key part of the project will be the creation of the UK's largest district heating system. New underground pipes will supply heat from a mix of low-carbon sources, including: energy from the city's waste; biogas from sewage; combined heat and power systems; and waste heat, captured through heat exchangers, from companies such as breweries, bakeries and IT businesses.

This joined-up use of the city's low-carbon energy resources will produce a 9% decrease in carbon emissions, as well as reducing heating costs for low-income households.

Among the other aims of the plan, costing between £1.5bn and £2bn in public and private-sector money, is planting trees in vacant spaces to absorb carbon, and the creation of wind turbine areas. Vehicles will be encouraged to run on biofuels or electricity. The initiative aims to deliver a 30% decrease in carbon emissions by 2020.

Richard Bellingham, senior research fellow in energy policy at the University of Strathclyde, says: "We've taken a strategic look at Glasgow – seeing it as a whole, rather than in pockets. Rather than making one building sustainable, or focusing on one low-carbon technology, by taking a holistic approach we are able to identify how organisations can help each other, and how different technologies can support each other."

Sandy Gillon, head of transport and environment for Glasgow city council, says: "the scheme not only benefits Glasgow environmentally, it will benefit the city's people, bringing in a whole raft of social opportunities as it attracts investment and jobs are created."